Review of Danny Collins (2015) by Simon W — 08 Jun 2015

This closed the 2015 Cleveland International Film Festival. It was too long and not very exciting. All the early buzz about Pacino's come-back star turn was exaggerated. First time director Dan Fogelman, who has written four animated screenplays, seems to like his comedy and drama to be like a caricature.

The closing credits tell us this is based on a true story of a not very well known aging rock star who discovers John Lennon sent him an inspirational letter 40 years ago. Could his life have been different if he had known? Could he have avoided the empty life of sex, drugs, and booze, and instead continued to be relevant artistically?? These questions are so bluntly obvious and convince Al Pacino's Danny Collins to try to be a better person in the here and now.

Much of the comedy, which I found uninspired, stems from Danny's addiction to luxury and being a fish out of water in small town America. Even though he suddenly doesn't want to be the sell-out artist performing his one big hit song to sold out houses of retired groupies that have funded his extravagant lifestyle, he still throws cash around to prove his fame and success.

There is a subplot in which he tries to woo the hotel manager played by Annette Bening. Of course, she is still nearly 20 years his junior. Then a large part of the plot that is supposed to demonstrate that Danny Collins is a better person than his rockstar lifestyle would suggest involves Danny trying to reconnect with his grown son played by Bobby Cannavale, the son's wife played by Jennifer Garner, and their daughter played by Giselle Eisenberg.

Cannavale and Garner's characters get to the heart of the matter pretty quickly. Giselle Eisenberg plays Hope as a child loudly shoving ADHD in our faces, which was irritating rather than adorable.

Father and son have some good scenes together, but again the emotions mostly felt like caricature in the Scent of a Woman, "hoo-wah!" vein. Pacino is also not very convincing as a singer who can hold a crowd's attention.